This disclosure relates to orthopedic surgical instrumentation, and more particularly to a surgical cutting block for preparing a bone to receive a prosthetic implant, such as a total knee implant.
Total or partial knee replacement surgery has been performed for many years to treat patients with diseased knee joints. Some knee instrumentation sets include cutting blocks that can be used to make a variety of cuts (i.e., resections) in a patient's bone to prepare the bone for receiving a prosthetic implant. For example, a 4-in-1 cutting block can be used to make anterior, posterior and chamfer cuts to prepare a femur for accepting a total knee implant.
A variety of different types of cutting blocks are known, and surgeon preference for the different types of cutting blocks can vary. For example, some surgeons may prefer “open” cutting blocks that allow the surgeon to control the cutting angle of the cuts, while other surgeons may prefer “slotted” cutting blocks that limit the ability to increase and/or decrease the angle of the cuts. As a result, a surgical institution may have to maintain a relatively large inventory of surgical instrumentation to satisfy the different preferences of its surgeons.